A. Field of the Invention
The principles of the invention relate generally to network device management and, more particularly, to configuring network devices.
B. Description of Related Art
In an increasingly networked world, devices that enable the network are becoming pervasive. Two examples of such devices are firewalls and routers. A firewall may generally be defined as a network gateway device that protects the resources of a private network from users associated with other networks. An enterprise with an intranet that allows its workers access to the Internet may install a firewall to prevent outsiders from accessing its own private data resources and for controlling what outside resources its own users can access. A router may generally be defined as a network device that determines the next network point to which network packets should be forwarded as the packets progress towards their final destination.
Some entities, such as large corporations, may manage a number of network devices. The devices may occasionally need to be reconfigured to implement different network management policies, network interfaces, or to update or change other device features. When dealing with multiple network devices, a management application can be used to assist in configuring the network devices and monitoring the status of the network devices. The management application communicates with each of the network devices and can present a single interface through which administrators can control and monitor the network.
Some network devices may be configured or modified without using the management application, which will be called an out-of-band modification herein. For example, a user may directly login to a particular network device and change a configuration of the network device. The out-of-band changes may be made while the device is online or when the device is off-line relative to the management application (e.g., during a network outage caused by a failure of an intermediate router).
An administrator using the management application may request that a single change be made to many different network devices. Not all of these network devices may be online when the administrator requests that the change is made.
In order to keep an up-to-date view of the network, it is desirable that the management application be able to efficiently and automatically learn about out-of-band device modifications and that the management application be able to accurately update the network devices as soon as possible.